Gina Carano stopped short of confirming she'll be stepping back into the octagon, but she came awfully close.

The 31-year-old was a guest on the Arsenio Hall Show -- which, apparently, still exists? -- and opened up about her desire to once again fight professionally.

"I'm actually kind of considering it," Carano said. "There's not a workout I go through that I'm not fighting someone in my mind, it's never gone away."

The interview will only add fuel to the fire of rumours suggesting Carano could be in line to trade blows against UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey sometime soon.

If it happens, the matchup would be something of a dream for UFC matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby. Rousey (9-0-0) has emerged as one of the most bankable faces on the organization's roster, but has been so thoroughly dominant the division's become somewhat short on intriguing title challengers.

Carano would change that.

While she stepped away from the fight-game two years before Rousey's Strikeforce debut, following a loss to Cristiane Justino in August, 2009, Carano looked unstoppable in the seven wins that preceded her first defeat. With an aggressive style and movie star good looks, Carano was MMA's first transcendent female fighter.

Rousey was the second, and having them go head-to-head would be a coup for the UFC.

Carano confirmed to Hall she has a meeting scheduled with UFC president Dana White next week, and admitted she misses competing in the octagon.

"100%, I do," Carano said. "I love it, it's something I can do that makes everything else disappear. I dream about it.

"I just didn't know if I was going to get placed with the opportunity to make a comeback. So I'm either going to do it now or I'm just going to retire and I'm never going to do it.

"Now's the moment, I feel."

In her time away from the sport, Carano's carved out a career for herself in Hollywood, most famously starring in the Steven Soderbergh action-thriller Haywire, and playing bad-girl henchwoman Riley in the Fast & Furious 6.

Technically, though, Carano never retired. She's just been on a five-year hiatus, which means she's still under contract to Zuffa, the UFC's parent company.

"If Gina Carano wanted to fight in the UFC, we would definitely do it," White told MMAFighting.com in early March.

CUMMINS GETS ANOTHER SHOT

Patrick Cummins didn't do much to impress the UFC faithful in his debut last month at UFC 170, but he'll have another chance to prove himself in the octagon in June.

Cummins accepted a fight against Daniel Cormier in the main event at UFC 170 last month. The lead-up to the fight was heated, with Cummins talking trash seemingly non-stop, but once the bell rang he only lasted 1:19 after being rocked by a monster uppercut.

For his second fight, the former NCAA wrestler will have a full training camp to prepare for Francimar Barroso at UFC Fight Night 42 in Albuquerque, N.M. on June 7.

Like Cummins, Barroso will also be looking to bounceback from a loss, having lost his last fight to Hans Stringer by split decision at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Henderson 2 in March.

NUNES REPLACES BASZLER

Canadian fighter Sarah Kaufman won't have much time to adjust her preparations in advance of the Ultimate Fighter: Nations finale in Quebec City on April 16.

Kaufman, the women's division's No. 5 ranked fighter, was initially scheduled to take on Shayna Baszler, but it was announced Friday that she'll instead face No. 8 Amanda Nunes.

The Brazilian Nunes was originally supposed to fight Alexis Dufresne on April 19.